This Is What Love Is
by little-world
Summary: Riane! Ric comforts Diane. Please read and reply


This is what love is  
  
Now, I'm not usually a Riane supporter, but this just kind of fitted, because he was the only one who knew about the Steve and the baby (I think!!)  
  
Diane put her key in the door and sighed as she turned it. Another day over, she thought, at last. The day had seemed to drag on forever, and now all she wanted to do was curl up on the sofa and just fall asleep. She knew, however, that she was likely to end up crying herself to sleep though. It had been one of those days! She switched on the TV; not wanting to watch anything in particular, there was nothing really on at one in the morning, but just did it out of habit really. Having the TV on was comforting, being able to hear someone else speaking, letting her know that she wasn't the only one in the world.  
  
The man on the TV reminded her of the date. As if she needed reminding! Everything that she had seen throughout the day seemed to have the date upon it. The one date that she would have rather just forgotten - her birthday. Usually she was like a little kid on her birthday - all excited and wanted everyone in the world to know, but not today. Today was different, and she hadn't told anyone. Today was her first birthday since Steve and the baby had died.  
  
As she lay curled up on the sofa, her knees pulled into her chest, a tear began rolling down her cheek. She knew that they would come sooner or later, even though she had tried to fight them back all day, along with thoughts of Steve and the baby, but now she had nothing to preoccupy her mind. No work to busy herself with, and no one to talk to. She had nothing to do apart from think of them over and over again. Would things have been different if Steve hadn't died? Would she have kept the baby? She wasn't sure of the answers to her questions. The baby. What would the baby have been like? If she'd have kept it even though Steve did die, would she have been able to cope? Would it have been a boy or a girl? What would it's first word have been? Now she would never know. And it was her own fault. She had decided to have the abortion. Her, no-one else, she had no-one else to blame. And she did blame herself. She had decided to have the abortion because she was scared. Was that really a good enough reason to end a life before it had even really begun? Because she was scared? She wasn't so sure it was, but there was nothing she could do about it now. It was too late. .. As the thoughts continued to roll though her mind, as did the tears upon her cheeks, she heard the doorbell ring. Who was that? she thought, even though there was only one person that it could possibly be. Ric. She lifted her head off of the arm of the sofa and looked out towards the street. The orange streetlight was shining on the black car parked outside and she knew who it belonged to, but she didn't have the energy to answer the door, and didn't particularly want to speak to anyone. Especially not Ric. She had burdened him with her problems enough already. He had his own life to lead. His purpose in life was not to sort her life out for her. She had to learn to do that on her own. He was a surgeon. A good surgeon. She was a surgeon, but how was she supposed to mend their lives when she couldn't even sort her own life out?  
  
The doorbell rang again  
  
"Diane? Diane I know you're in there, I can see the TV" he called through the door.  
  
He was right. He could see that the TV was on. She hadn't even had the energy to draw the curtains, even though her main aim was to block out the rest of the world.  
  
"Diane?"  
  
She closed her eyes and ignored him once again, hoping that maybe he would just go away. But deep down she knew that he wouldn't. He was there to help her, but she didn't want his help, because she knew that if she started crying upon his shoulder, she would never stop.  
  
"Diane? Are you ok? Let me in"  
  
It was no good. She couldn't ignore him and leave him standing out there all night, so she dragged herself up off of the sofa, attempted to dry the tears from her face and opened the door.  
  
"Diane, what's wrong?" he could tell that she had been crying and he looked concerned  
  
"Nothing" she lied. How did he always know when something was wrong? She thought  
  
He knew that she was lying, but left it. She would tell him when she was ready, he thought. He walked along into the kitchen as she closed the front door behind him.  
  
"Got anything to eat?" he asked as he approached the fridge  
  
"Err."  
  
He opened the fridge and looked inside to find only a few items  
  
"Obviously not!"  
  
He picked up the carton of milk and turned his nose up as he smelt it, putting it back straight away. He picked up something else and put that down again too.  
  
"Diane, everything's over a week out of date!"  
  
"Oh" She wasn't really listening and didn't really care. She had too many other things on her mind. Food didn't seem important.  
  
Ric closed the fridge door and turned around to see Diane sitting on one of the kitchen stools, away in a world of her own, with tears once again falling from her eyes.  
  
He walked over to her and pulled her in close to him, allowing her to nestle on his chest.  
  
"Shhh." he said, stroking her hair as she began to cry uncontrollably into his shirt.  
  
"Hey, come on, what is it? What's wrong?.Your not that old!"  
  
"No.it's.it's not that" she said between sniffles  
  
He knew that that wasn't what was wrong. It was obviously something much deeper, but he thought it might have brought a smile to her face.  
  
"I know" he replied soothingly, still stroking her silky brown hair.  
  
"I...I'm not very.good at.explaining..it's.it's just."  
  
"It's ok Diane.let it all out.have a good cry."  
  
They stood in the kitchen, her crying into his shirt, his arms securely around her, one hand around her waist, the other protectively across her back, for what seemed like an eternity in one sense, yet only a second in another. But it didn't matter. Time was not of importance anymore. She knew that nothing could change what had happened with Steve and the baby, and Ric made her see that no amount of tears would bring either of them back for her to be able to re-write history. But maybe if she could re-write what had happened it wouldn't have made any difference, because perhaps deep down she had known that it wasn't to be. It wasn't where her heart and her destiny were, yet it was only now, while being comforted by Ric that she realised it. At this moment, for the first time in her life she felt secure. She felt safe, and it dawned on her why. It was because she was in Rics arms, and she realised that this was where her heart and her destiny was - with Ric. He made her feel secure and was always there to protect her, to comfort her, to make everything seem ok again. He always had been. And she realised that sometimes it's hard to appreciate what you've got right in front of you.  
  
She lifted her head up slowly from his chest and as he looked down at her, their eyes met. Her blue eyes, shining from the tears that had now run dry, and his big brown loving eyes were locked in each others gaze while their heads moved slowly together and their soft lips met. And they finally knew what love was. What they felt for each other now and what they would continue to feel for the rest of their lives. This was something special. This was love. 


End file.
